The face is centrral in the drawing and the eyes staring/the lines depicting the hair are strong determined and short waves. The lightening is frontal and to the sittter’s left. The facial shading is softer hatched and confined to distinct shapes-i.e does not shade into the rest of the face. The face and eyes have a delineated line, the chair behind is made up of short. stronger lines than those on the face. There are soft pencil horizontally hatched shades in the background depicting rectangular forms which contrast against the stronger and more curved forms of the collar and neck

Why is this portrait regarded as expressionistic? Expressionism: Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas……The term is sometimes suggestive of angst…… ref:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism sourced on line Oct 2013. There is an emotional angst produced by the short sharp lines used to denote hair (similar to the marks of Van Gogh–and the angular hard lines of the shading on the face, as well as the stare -which as all the eyeball is visible must imply a wide open eyelids as in shock.

quote from above website: “Great quality drawing of one of Britain’s finest 20th Century painters. This work shows the mastery of Bratby’s draughtsmanship and his ability to hold a line.”

Sitting centrally with legs crossed, the artists looks at the viewer with eyes defined by single dark lines. The hair and facial shading follow a left to right flow across the forehead hatched with lines, the cheeks are hatched similkarly in the direction ofouter border of face towardds the nose. The lips are positioned by dark lines and the lips themselves given form and toner with small almost vertical and widely spaced lines. The creases of the clothes flow in single waving lines produceing areas which are filled in with darker sketch on the lighter side (figures right) if the figure, but remain lines overlaid with hatching on the darker side of the figure. The light is from the figures left (he appears to be left handed). The lines of the fingers on the right hand and the left arm are clearly and forcefully drawn and hatched to bring out the shadows. There is minimal background hatching.

Why does Gwen John always remind me of Jane Eyre? Her expression in her self portraits gives nothing away, there is minimal shading, minimal line and her simple dress and pigtails make her portrait very “pathetic” in the manner in which Jane Eyre faces the world , however beneath it all lies hidden strength of purpose. The perfect woman evolving from Victorian England (Gwen John 1876-1939) and finding strength and determination. This picture is described as oil on canvas although it appears to be a drawing, tone and hair colour are represented by a darker shadeof paint and the rest of the image is in fine but accurately determined line. The head is tilted slightly to give it both humility and enquiring and there is no facial expression. The overall image by its shading its facial expression and its stance produces the meekness that I feel reminds me of Jane Eyre.

“First, the racist idea of the black as naif , “instinctual,” someone outside “mainstream” culture and therefore not to be rated in its terms”:

“Second, a fetish about the freshness of youth, blooming among the discos of the East Side scene”.

“Third, guilt and political correctness, which made curators and collectors nervous about judging the work of any black artist who could be presented as a “victim.”

Fourth, “art-investment mania”.

And last, the audience’s goggling appetite for self-destructive talent”

The image of the head in blacks browns reds and whites is full of geometrical shapes and busy white lines which remind me of the technological age but based on the “primitive art” of Africa or Australasia by its sculptural blocks of colour. The face looks frightened, the eye surrounding by white line agitatedly going round and round and the white lines like teeth across the mouth area give a feel of shaking, the figure standing proud but unsure, a long vulnerable neck separated from a thin featureless chest in red. It is difficult to read the picture when the history is known, but it feels full of the energy and uncertainty of youth. It probably tells us far more about the man who painted it than we could ever know.

Giacometti was a Swiss artist, predominantly a sculptor. I have read on a blog that he marked out the lines of relationship between parts of his subject -be it a bottle and the window and then worked into that bringing the observer’s concentration to the predominant parts of the image.

Wide staring eyes with irregular pupils giving the face a drunken or drugged appearance, an insipid colour of green contrasted against a pink background makes one think of sickliness and ill health, the distressed and agitated purple and black lines demarcating the features of the face and the stubbled unkempt chin and the deep V shaped “cut” into the left facial border give a feel of pain both physical and psychological.

There are now two things I wish to try in my self portraiture -one is to draw my face in angles and forms in a sculptural Picasso type image and the other is to use the relationshiops between parts of the face to scribble a Giacometti type image.

VAN GOGH Although well acquainted with Van Gogh’s self portraits in paint I had not till recently seen his drawings

What gives this sitter poise? The soft line and hints of tone, the face devoid of line with emotion shown only in the eyes which are slightly downcast relaxed but searching and in the mouth equally relaxed. There is only a hint of the facial features and only a small amount of line in its representation, but the artist has given the sitter peace and dignity….she knows more than she is prepaared to reveal? Similalry Gwen John’s self portrait has poise and hidden knowledge. I think it is a feminine attribute.

THE HISTORY OF THE SELF PORTRAIT

Born in the Rennaissance, when artists began to put names to their works and the rich individuals of the merchant classes sought to have their faces recorded for each other and for posterity.

LOG

I thought the line drawings in ink were the best self portrait ventures, the dots and spots provoked by Goya was not good. I liked the energetic pencil lines provoked by looking at Giacometti. I much prefer the drawings using little shading in line than those in which I have block shaded as they give more atmosphere to the image.

Many of the self portraits do look like me although comments such as “that’s scarry” -which referred to the image through the mirror ( based on the drawing by John Bratby in the OCA handbook) and the comments that I had “over accentuated both my lines and facial features of ageing and of sadness ” were made by relatives, who know I can look good and happy.

I found converting the sketches to produce an image from memory exceptionally difficult -I need more information when I make sketches.

My preliminary drawings were not adequate but on the whole , I just jumped in and made the image in the large sketch book rather than depending on preliminary drawings….I found my concentration waxes if I draw the same image over and over and am quite well trained to concentrate quite closely.